Lexical Choices and Medicine Risk Modulation: A Speech Act Analysis of Selected Antibiotic Patient Information Leaflets in Kenya

Ideally, risk information in Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) functions as a safety mechanism for patients and a tool for empowering them to make autonomous and informed decisions about their medication. However, linguistic choices can significantly impact medicine risk modulation and hinder the purposes of risk communication. This paper analyses the lexical choices that modulate medicine risk in PILs.  A purposive sampling technique was used to select fifteen PILs from prescriptive and non-prescription antibiotic medicines manufactured between 2020 and 2025. The lexical choices that presented medicine risk were collected through a documentary analysis of the risk information in the selected PILs. Following that, the lexical choices were analysed using Speech Acts to determine how risk is modulated. The study found that medicine risk was presented and modulated via lexical hedges (epistemic modals, epistemic adjectives, epistemic adverbs, lexical verbs, adjectives and nouns of severity, adverbs of frequency) and a lack of lexical hedges. The choices either weakened or strengthened the illocutionary force of the risk information speech acts, leading to the attenuation or amplification of the risk magnitude. It was concluded that the language of risk information in PILs is not completely neutral; certain lexical choices modulate the magnitude of medicine risks so as to serve a pharmaceutical company’s goal. The Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board should enforce policies regarding risk communication in PILs that promote consumer autonomous and informed decision-making.